07-28-2008, 03:27 PM
I know this is going to get me quite a few flames, and possibly even banned from the board (I hope not), but I'm saying this because this is what my opinion is, this is the proper board for this sort of thing, not because I just want to make people upset.
I've noticed that when someone meets a soldier (or contacts him or her on a message board), he or she always thanks the soldier for protecting our freedom. The person saying this may even disagree with the Iraq War.
I find that interesting. Here we are in a war of aggression against a nation that was repeatedly proven not to be a threat to us in any way. There were not WMDs, there was no "imminent threat," and there were no terrorist strongholds, period.
So how can a soldier in Iraq be "protecting our freedom" when our freedom wasn't in any danger to begin with? In fact, because of the war and 9/11, the government has justified the removal of our freedoms. The Iraq War has literally resulted in less freedom than before. Now, that's not the fault of the soldiers, but to say that they protected our freedom when it was in no danger, and the action that they took part in ended up being the justification for less freedom seems a bit deluded to me.
Now, in the general sense, during wars against foes that were a very real threat to us (like Hitler and Japan in WWII), the soldiers did protect our freedom. We needed them and we need them today to protect our freedom against legitimate threats to our sovreignty.
But a soldier in the Iraq War, or from Desert Storm, or from Vietnam, their fighting wasn't to protect our freedom. In Iraq they're fighting to preserve freedom for the Iraqis. During Desert Storm, they were fighting for Kuwait's interests, not ours. Vietnam was no threat to us, either, but paranoia over the spread of communism launched us into that conflict as well.
Yet people fall all over themselves to praise our troops for doing something they didn't do. I'm not going to pretend I know the reasons each person has for signing up for the armed services, and I'm not saying all the soldiers are bushies or corporate neocons or anything like that. I certainly respect them because their job is hazardous, but I'm not going to pretend that they're doing anything for me in this particular conflict.
I've noticed that when someone meets a soldier (or contacts him or her on a message board), he or she always thanks the soldier for protecting our freedom. The person saying this may even disagree with the Iraq War.
I find that interesting. Here we are in a war of aggression against a nation that was repeatedly proven not to be a threat to us in any way. There were not WMDs, there was no "imminent threat," and there were no terrorist strongholds, period.
So how can a soldier in Iraq be "protecting our freedom" when our freedom wasn't in any danger to begin with? In fact, because of the war and 9/11, the government has justified the removal of our freedoms. The Iraq War has literally resulted in less freedom than before. Now, that's not the fault of the soldiers, but to say that they protected our freedom when it was in no danger, and the action that they took part in ended up being the justification for less freedom seems a bit deluded to me.
Now, in the general sense, during wars against foes that were a very real threat to us (like Hitler and Japan in WWII), the soldiers did protect our freedom. We needed them and we need them today to protect our freedom against legitimate threats to our sovreignty.
But a soldier in the Iraq War, or from Desert Storm, or from Vietnam, their fighting wasn't to protect our freedom. In Iraq they're fighting to preserve freedom for the Iraqis. During Desert Storm, they were fighting for Kuwait's interests, not ours. Vietnam was no threat to us, either, but paranoia over the spread of communism launched us into that conflict as well.
Yet people fall all over themselves to praise our troops for doing something they didn't do. I'm not going to pretend I know the reasons each person has for signing up for the armed services, and I'm not saying all the soldiers are bushies or corporate neocons or anything like that. I certainly respect them because their job is hazardous, but I'm not going to pretend that they're doing anything for me in this particular conflict.